Branch Honoraria

These guidance notes are designed to help branches and organisers navigate the regional and national processes for the payment of branch honoraria.

Regional Honoraria Contacts:

Elizabeth Britton / e.britton@unison.co.uk

2024 Honoraria Panel:

The Regional Honoraria Panel is a lay member committee which adjudicates on honoraria proposals made by branches which require a decision from the region.

Any proposals received will be reviewed and decisions made by email.

General Guidance (All branches wishing to award honoraria):

If a branch wishes to award honoraria, they should refer to the document above and note the information below:

• Discuss proposals during the Organising Framework / Joint Branch Assessment meeting.
• The branch committee should agree proposals before the AGM (and this should be minuted).
• A quorate AGM should then discuss and vote on the proposals.
• Following approval at a quorate AGM, branches should upload payment information to WARMS themselves in line with the national guidance (link above).

For those payments to be processed, RMS will be checked for the AGM date, whether it was quorate, and whether the branch’s rules allow for the payment of honoraria. Providing all those things have been input on RMS, regional approval will be given to the branch’s payments.

IMPS will then process payments on the 15th of each month. If the 15th falls on a weekend or bank holiday, Honoraria will be paid on the last working day before. For 2023 claims, the first payment will be made on 15 March 2024, then 15 April, and so on. Please note it takes 2-3 working days after the payment date for the payment to reach the recipient’s bank account.

If branches wish to have honoraria payments processed from this tax year – 2023/24 – the final date for complete and accurate submission (including regional approval) to IMPS is 3pm on 15 March 2024.

Branches with Honoraria under 10% of 2023 funding allocation

For the majority of branches in the region, honoraria will be under 10% of their funding allocation in 2023, and no regional intervention will be required.

Branches with honoraria over 10% of 2023 funding allocation

10% of funding is the regional intervention point, and any branch wishing to award over 10% will need approval from the Regional Honoraria Panel (a sub-committee of Regional Council).

Branches are advised to seek approval from the panel before their AGM if they wish to award over 10% of income to ensure no undue delay with payments.

If you, or your branch, has a query about what 10% of their funding equals, please contact Elizabeth Britton

For the panel to make a decision they require the following information, please complete the form below and email to Elizabeth.

The panel will then inform the branch and Regional Organiser of the outcome and whether they are recommending changes to the branch’s proposals. If branches disagree with the panel’s recommendation, they will be given the opportunity to make further representations. After this, if there remains a fundamental disagreement between the branch and panel, the branch may appeal to national (contact Elizabeth if this becomes necessary).

Once this process is complete, as with branches with proposals under 10%, branches will need to upload payment info to WARMS, and the regional checks will be made before IMPS processes the payments.

Branches that wish to pay honoraria, but hold an inquorate AGM

If an AGM is inquorate and a branch wishes to award honoraria, then they must also seek the approval of the regional panel.

For the panel to make a decision they will require the same information as above, please complete this form and email to Elizabeth.

NB, if a branch has already been through the over 10% process, detailed above, with the panel – please contact Elizabeth first because it may not be necessary for the branch to undergo all requirements contained in this document.

Branches not live on WARMS

Any branches not live on WARMS but wishing to pay honoraria will need to contact Elizabeth for their payment information to be uploaded to the system.

The branch will still need to have their honoraria approved by their quorate AGM and / or the Regional Honoraria Panel, but once approval has been given they should send Elizabeth the following information for all honoraria recipients.

• Name
• Membership number
• Role in the branch (for which the honoraria is being awarded)
• Date of birth
• Amount to be paid
• NI number
• Bank address
• Bank account number
• Bank sort code